working pArts art & the public realm Project Profile: Poole Bridge Regeneration Project, Poole, Dorset Client: Poole Borough Council / SWERDA Value: Programme - £16M - Services - strategy and follow on Strategy Development, Commissioning Plan, 2 Design Competitions, Client Mentoring Duration: October 2001 – March 2004 Project Aims To enable Poole to grow by proving a new bridge across to Hamworthy and opening up 50 hectares of development opportunity whilst re-masterplanning the town and the new development areas. Objectives To convince officers, elected members and funding partners that the new bridge can be much more than just a bridge and can become an extraordinary emblem of change for the town. To transform the commissioning process from an engineering procurement process to one of securing the very best in art and design To encourage and enable the client team to procure a art and landscape design guide by secur- ing funding and managing the process of artist/landscape architect team procurement To mentor officers and guide them through the process of procurement, including briefing, se- curing funding, developing the competition process, ensuring the best designers apply and man- aging the selection procedure To develop a strategy for a programme of deliverable art projects based around the masterplan To monitor the design development processes and oversee the relationship between designers and client working pArts art & the public realm Outcomes Agreement by members and officers to pursue a progressive path and that the new bridge should be a sculpture in its own right Procurement, via an international design competition run by Geoff Wood, of an outstanding bridge design by a team of Wilkinson Eyre, Martin Richman, Giffords and Spiers & Major The final design of the Twin Sails Bridge will be an extraordinary landmark on the South Coast Agreement that the in-house team did not have the skills to design the art/landscape guide document for the new development An international competition overseen by Geoff Wood to appoint the team of B+B landscape architects, IDEA architects and artists Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier to develop the design guide for landscape and art in the new development area Funding for the bridge Agreement by Gallaghers, the development partners to adopt the design guide Project Overview This was a project that began as an invitation to Geoff Wood to propose how an artist could deco- rate the planned new bridge at Poole. At this stage it was an engineering dominated process and Geoff Wood took it upon himself to persuade the client team and the funders that the most pro- ductive route was to make the bridge the artwork. That was the beginning of a complex process of advocacy, encouragement, some arguing and a lot of persuading to end up with the designs above. Running concurrently was the process of mentoring the officer corps to enable them to see how to secure the best landscape for the new development. Simultaneously we commissioned new work by Simon Watkinson for the seafront. .